Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

The Best of Both Worlds.

by James Fitzsimons

Mmm. Can you taste that ladies and gentlemen? That is the sweet and so seldom seen taste of a Spider-Man perfectly cast. Tom Holland (21) nailed both sides of the character. He was funny, he was awkward, a wall flower, a screw up with heart trying to make a difference in a world that has shown him so much pain.

Previous Spider-Man movies have shown us good takes on one side of Peter Parker, with the Raimi-led Tobey Maguire achieving the awkward do-gooder Peter Parker, and Marc Webb casting Andrew Garfield to show a Spider-Man that can laugh (and the suit wasn’t too shabby either), but neither iteration got the balance right. Spider-Man: Homecoming did.

Credit: Sony Pictures

This, my dear sweet Spider-Fans, is result (at least in this Spidey aficionado’s opinion) of the marvel influence. The tender touch of good casting.

But I won’t stand here and say this is a perfect film. For every 3 things I loved (Holland, the hilarity of Martin Starr, and the influence of John Hughes) there was one gripe. Now this is a spoiler free review so I will not go into specifics. But there was one – I guess twist is the word – that left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I’m probably just a bitter comic reading old man but to me there are some things that I feel should remain constant.

Again, not everyone will feel that way and I absolutely respect that. If we were shown a movie that was word for word torn from the Lee-Ditko era of comics in the 60’s, it would feel old and corny. Change is the ever-present inevitability in comic books, but in this case I feel some aspects of the Spider-Man mythos were mishandled.

Credit: Sony Pictures

But ignoring that, the side characters are charming and don’t feel hammed in, the soundtrack fits well for the genre of “coming of age” film, and nothing of it feels redundant (aside from that one thing I really want to talk about but I abhor spoilers).

When it comes to movies I grade them on a separate scale because, in my mind, its so rare that we get a comic book movie that is actually an excellent movie top to bottom. So this was a normal movie it would be a 5/10, a fun way to spend 2 hours without looking too deeply at the flaws. It does, however, get a 7.5/10 on the Marvel movie-o-meter.

You want a good Spider-Man film? You want to laugh? You want tension and fun fight scenes?

Go see this movie.

Spider-Man: Homecoming arrives at the Macrobert Arts Center on the 21st of July and you can book your tickets here. For other films and other great entertainment check out their website.